Sunday, May 1, 2016

Study of Winslow Homer

At this art class we studied the watercolor paintings of Winslow Homer. We noticed how he loved to paint boats tossed about on dramatic seas in stormy weather. We took inspiration from the painting below to paint our seascapes and boats. The children learned some new water color techniques of layering colors and of dabbing color off with a sponge for the clouds. Finally we added tissue paper to make the sails of the boats. The kids all enjoyed their finished results.

Breezing Up by Winslow Homer.

This is a small sampling of the lovely paintings that the children produced.....

Study of Famous Painter - Edward Degas

In this Art Class we studied the paintings of Edward Degas. We looked at his numerous paintings focused on Dancers and noticed that he used an impresionist style of painting with broad brush strokes. I showed the children how they too could use broad brush strokes with watercolor as they painted coffee filters to use as skirst and used broad brush strokes to create a festive background.

Two Dancers by Edward Degas

Here are a few close- up samples of their work.....

The kids had a lot of fun making their dancers. Look how happy they are with their paintings....

Study of Famous Painter - Mary Cassat

In this class we studied Mary Cassatt and took some time to discuss her life as well as to view several of her famous paintings. We noticed that women and children were her favorite subjects. Our model painting for this class is the Boating Party (see below).

Mary Cassat - The Boating Party

We noticed her bold use of color and how the lines of this painting draw the eye to the main focus which is the mother and her baby. Then we took time to carefully draw out our painting. We discussed the drawing technique of treating all the shapes in this painting like a jigsaw puzzle that need to fit together to make a whole. I showed the class how to check angles of the lines as well as other techniques to check proportion of the lines they draw. After our drawing was complete we painted the lightest colors first and worked our way up to the darkest colors....with some discussion of how to properly mix very light colors by starting with white paint on the pallet and adding the smallest amount of pigment to get the light shade.. The children followed the direction very carefully and achieved fantastic results. I am so proud of their work!